By that way of thinking, all of the work of Ron Moore on TNG was fan fiction...
How is "canon" or "official" content in a traditional business context not merely fan fiction blessed by the copyright holder?
Why would anyone have to maintain continuity with my work? It's a big universe. I'm submitting the work to the committee to get a seal of approval.
The point of a canon approval process would be to preserve a singular continuity, not to simply say something is good in some way. People are often inspired to write fan films to project themselves into a particular universe that they see on TV or in film. Why should they have to set their films on the other side of the galaxy to avoid bumping into Captain Trademark? It diminishes the power of continuity in the first place. If continuity had no value, we wouldn't have just had a four-series DC crossover event about a month ago.
Wouldn't I have to submit the film in order for the committee to see it? Just because I control the copyright doesn't mean I can't give it away or put it up on youtube for people to see it for free.
First of all, the panel I suggested is not the voting body. The entire community is. What is the value of an inaccessible continuity to the community? If everyone has to make up their own charaters and settings, and never the twain shall meet, why would continuity matter?
lol with the poll tax comment, but, the way you are suggesting that creators turn over their copyrights and control of them (for free) sounds pretty egregious. This committee would have control over how many works?
There would be a standard license, and the ORGANIZATION would be authorized to enforce the license on your behalf. The only control they can exercise it to punish infractions of the license. Everyone would be free to do as they please so long as they don't violate that license. Keep in mind that for every 1 copyright you "give up", you gain access to everyone elses copyright in exchange. And you would have a right to give your own review of their work before it is voted on and to vote on the content yourself. The control is not concentrated in the hands of the canon organization. It is in the hands of the whole community that makes use of the canon.
?? Why does the resolution matter to the committee? Aren't they just deciding if it's canon or not?
I've already come to the opinion that licensing the screenplay should be sufficient. It gets around a number of sticky problems like reproducing an actor's likeness and the lot. Submitters would be encouraged to include license for things like costume patterns, ship designs, et cetera, but just having the screenplay should be sufficient to allow reference to its characters, settings and events. The worst case scenario is that you might have to create your own version of a particular design if it's not licensed.
But, to the point of money making: Say I create an original alien for my Sherlock Holmes/Star Trek film. I turn over my copyright to this Committee. Someone else who is apart of this group, uses my alien--because, hey, I have to license the character, and they start making money from it. Maybe they make dolls.
I've pondered the idea that the submission license would only permit non-commercial derivative works. This would force people to go back to the individual copyright holders to negotiate separate commercial licenses. However, over the long term, that creates a copyright management nightmare for anyone who wants to do a commercial film. The more indirect the derivation, the more people could potentially hold copyrights. It could be literally impossible to determine who all the copyright holders are, and you may end up in court even if you do negotiate licenses.
A system that allows commercial derivative works but only requires licensing of the screenplay partially fixes this because your interpretation of what the alien race looks like would still be yours to license. I'm deliberately trying to avoid licensing strategies that are too conceptually complex to be manageable.
Do I get a cut? Or does it got to the committee? To the group? Or is it just the person who made the merch?
The canon organization shouldn't get a "cut" of anything in any scenario.
Let's suppose that we're talking about a situation where submission of anything but the screenplay is optional, and that the license for the screenplay allows derivative works. If the merch maker uses your design from your film, and you didn't choose to license that design, he'd have to pay you. If he interprets the screenplay to create his own original design, he can keep all of the profits. He would, however, have to give you attribution for the screenplay that he based the design on.
What you could not do is deliberately obfuscate your alien within the screenplay that it renders any "clean room" interpretation of your alien impossible. For example, if the aliens have a name in the film, they should have a name in the screenplay.
What if they started using the alien in ways that I didn't want, that I don't approve of... Even though I have surrendered my copyright, do I get a say in how my character is used? Or anyone can do anything they want with my original creation--because I was forced to give it up to get a seal of "Canon"?
I think the whole question implies a sort of distrust of the community in general, as if all of the Sherlock Holmes/Star Trek fandom might choose to metaphorically go Deliverance on your character. I'm not sure that level of paranoia is warranted.
However, I would point out that there would be guidelines preventing the submission of content with illegal or objectionable material. The guidelines could be written, for instance, to prevent pornographic depictions of your character, or to show the character committing acts involving extreme violence and gore, or using excessive profanity. I hesitate, however, to allow a submitter too much power in directing exactly how someone can use one of their characters. Borrowing a character from continuity should not be like negotiating a contract with Mephistopheles.
You would not need copyright or trademark control for something you do not own the rights to.
If you create a new Klingon ship design, you can (probably) copyright the design as a derivative of someone else's IP.
In other words, the original rights holder would not be allowed to use your design without getting some form of permission (i think); however the creator would not be allowed to profit from his work either without a licensing agreement with the rights holder.
I'm not an attorney so I could be mistaken.
This all depends on how you construction the submission license, which is one of the topics I created this thread to discuss. Let's assume that the license would allow both commercial and non-commercial derivative works and requires attribution, and that you use this license for your design. Someone could use your design, and potentially for profit, but they must attribute the design to you, and if they want their own derivate designs to be canon, they must license those designs back to you.
However, this need not necessarily be the case. It depends on what you value when you pick or create your license. It's a series of trade-offs.
I saw the thread name and assumed that we would be personally voting on which fan films are canon (obviously a subjective effort) but figured that is what the "what if" was all about.
Yeah, this discussion is primarily about the mechanics of how you would manage a sort of open source, democratize canon rather than voting on specific episodes or movies. Not that such a discussion wouldn't be fun in its own right.
